Last week, we partnered with The Irish Times on the ‘Writing Rights’ project to mark Human Rights Day 2015. Seven highly acclaimed Irish authors participated in this project, creating written responses – ranging from poetry to creative fiction to factual pieces – to various Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This week, we’re running a spotlight series, where we take a closer look at each of the participating authors. Today, it’s the turn of Sara Baume, whose contribution to ‘Writing Rights’ was a factual piece called ‘On the Freedom to Write Irresponsibly’.

Sara drew inspiration from Article 27 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits’.

In her piece, she reflects on her participation in the International Writing Programme, run by the University of Iowa. Her fellow participants included women from Afghanistan, Israel, Sri Lanka and Togo, amongst other countries. She realised, during the programme, that many of these women used their writing to highlight human rights abuses and injustices in their home countries.

“I realised how fortunate I am to have been born a citizen of Western Europe. How straightforward it has been for me to pursue a writing career. And how, as a writer, I am privileged to be able to experiment with style as opposed to being bound by an obligation to speak up for human rights,” she writes.

“An awareness of human rights and equality issues in Ireland should equally mean an appreciation of how lucky we are to be Irish, so that we will never take it for granted. We should be free to write about whatever drives us; and we should be insistently conscious, as we write, that there are others who must write differently, who are not so free.”

Sara studied fine art at IADT Dun Laoghaire before completing the MPhil in creative writing at Trinity College Dublin. Her short fiction and essays have been widely published. She won the 2014 Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, the 2015 Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and the 2015 Rooney Prize for Literature.

Her debut novel,‘Spill Simmer Falter Wither’, was first published by Tramp Press. It was longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Guardian First Book Award, and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission was set up in November 2014 as an independent public body. The Commission's goal is an inclusive Ireland where human rights and equality are fully enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.

The Make Rights Real public awareness campaign aims to show how human rights and equality are relevant to all our lives and help people understand their rights.
Make Rights Real is an initiative of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
Make Rights Real is co-funded by the PROGRESS Programme of the European Union.